


Lup's Back!

by ViolentSarcasm



Category: the adventure zone
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, This is just fluff my man idk what to tell you, i guess, it's literally just taako having an internal monologue and then they hug it's not super complex, will ailem ever stop writing fics where people love and appreciate each other? no of course not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 09:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11849139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentSarcasm/pseuds/ViolentSarcasm
Summary: on the 18th at 8:14 pm jake tweeted, "that first hug between Lup and Taako when she gets her body back, she doesnt even tell him just bursts through the door and body slams him"so here you are, jake, i hope you're pleased.They care about each other very much





	Lup's Back!

Taako sighed, running a hand listlessly through his hair. It had been a few months since the Hunger's attack and subsequent defeat, and although things had largely gone back to normal, there was still a lot that was missing. Things felt wrong, like everything was just ever-so-slightly out of alignment. It was a feeling he had gotten used to, those years he'd lived without half of himself, but now that he could _recognize_ it it was gnawing at him.

  
Usually he'd just talk to Lup about it, but she had disappeared somewhere with Barry the previous morning, saying only "it's gonna be rad, dude!" as she flitted off.

  
She had taken to this new life as heroes -"legends"- remarkably well; much better than Taako had, really. She delighted in her work with Kravitz and Barry, and she reveled in the attention and adoration of the people of this universe.

  
Not to say Taako _didn't,_ obviously, but she handled everything with more grace and panache than he did. Not that he'd admit that to anyone but her, of course.

  
Where the fuck was she, anyway? Much of the crew, the twins included, had been using the moon as a sort of home base to keep their shit at while they figured out what came next, and Lup had come up there with Taako in tow a few days prior.

  
So now he was sitting in the living room of his old dorm, gazing down between the edges of carpets at the world. It was weird to be in there without the constant cacophonous evidence of Magnus and Merle blundering about, and with only a fraction of the usual hum of movement from above.

It was almost lonely.

  
He rolled his eyes, shaking off his melancholy and standing up. He'd just read or something. He didn't need _company_ to have a good time. Just because he'd avoided being alone for four full months didn't mean he doesn't like being alone, he's just...gracing everyone else with his presence.

  
Right.

  
They should be grateful.

  
The silence was oppressive. He flipped through a magazine he'd left on the table, put it down, then picked it up again. He wanted to talk to someone, but he didn't know where anyone was except...  
No, he wasn't desperate- _bored_ , bored is what he meant, he wasn't _bored_ enough to seek out Lucretia. He knew he'd talk to her eventually, but he couldn't, not yet.

  
He smelled smoke and glanced down. The magazine he had been reading was crumpled in his fist, and it looked like he'd almost set it on fire magically by accident. He scowled.

  
Suddenly, the door slammed open. He barely had time to turn around before a figure in a crimson robe barreled into him at top speed, cackling.

  
"-Oof, Lup, what the fuck-!" He started to swat at her where her arms around him were constricting his lungs-

  
Wait. Lup didn't have solid arms. She'd been dead for thirteen years.

  
Taako pulled himself half out of her embrace to look at her and, yep. That was an elven face, one that mirrored his; the same freckles and catlike eyes and sharp teeth, his same lips turned up in a familiar wicked grin.

  
"Hey," she said, with her mouth and tongue and teeth.

  
"What the fuck," he said, delighted.

  
"Got my body back," Lup replied cheerfully. "There was one of those pod things in the back room of the fantasy Costco. Don't tell my boss I was practicing necromancy again, mmkay?"

  
"I'm pretty sure she already knows, Lup," Taako said, completely failing to keep a goofy smile off his face. She smiled back at him for a moment before they both snapped forward into a hug again.

  
Taako buried his face in his sister's shoulder, like he hadn't for more than a decade. His grip on her was tight and desperate; he fisted his hands in the back of her robe and clung to her like she was all that was holding him to the world, and she held him just as tight, in an embrace that was almost painful. Her tail wound around his instinctively, and it felt so familiar and safe and _right_ that his breath caught in his chest.  
Lup pressed her face into his hair, her breath just a little too carefully regulated. For a long moment, they stood there like that, together again, properly, at last.

  
"Missed you," Lup mumbled finally. Taako thumped his forehead against her shoulder.

  
"Yeah, no shit," he said, voice thick. "We spent two and a half centuries constantly together and then we just -weren't."

  
Her ear flicked against his as she chuckled weakly.

  
"...Missed you too," he finished softly, pressing his eyes against her collarbone in an attempt to stave off the tears that were threatening to fall. "Hated not bein' able to see your dumb face."

  
"We have the same face, dingbat," she said. Then, softer, "sorry it took me three months to hug you."

  
He just held her closer in response, his breath hitching as he did finally cry. She matched him, running her fingers through his hair and, eventually, starting to purr.

  
It was a sound he hadn't heard in years, and he hadn't credited how much he'd missed it. It was a low, soft thrum, multiplied by how closely his head was pressed against her chest, comforting and warm and the sound that had always come to mind when he heard the word _home;_ it was the sound of impersonal houses and the backs of wagons, of magic and cooking and hundreds of campfires, the sound of their college dorm and their apartments and their rooms on the Starblaster. It was the sound he'd heard every day of his life, the sound he'd _returned_ , as he was returning now, every day as they curled around each other to sleep, and most of all it was the sound of _Lup._ Lup, who was strong and brave and good, who would trick and lie and cajole but who always took care of him, the one constant, the one person he knew he could always always trust, who he had never imagined it would be possible to forget.

  
His own purr was marred by the sobs that had finally caught up to him, that had been chasing him since he remembered her name. He wept into his sister's shoulder, and she purred into his ear, until he had no more tears left to cry.


End file.
